After a successful venture into an acoustic soundscape with their critically acclaimed album Nord, Gåte now return to the full-blown folk-rock they are known for.
The return to their full-scale soundscape is marked with no less than two brand new songs. The different, but also complementary singles Svarteboka and Skarvane are out everywhere now.
With these releases, Gåte delivers catchy, convincing and magnetic folk, which lures the listener in and drags you into a seductive soundscape where folk music plays on rock's premises.
On Svarteboka, Gåte are joined by labelmates Djerv.
The result is an epic meeting between Norway's two most iconic female metal and rock vocalists - Gunnhild Sundli and Agnete Kjølsrud.
Together, they have created nothing less than a monumental song where two of the true vanguards of the scene are given free space to challenge each other.
As two of the strongest Norwegian female vocalists of our generation, Gunnhild and Agnete have known of and admired each other for a long time. When they finally met at a wedding in 2022, the idea of a future collaboration manifested immediately.
Already in the early winter of 2023, Gåte sent a draft to Djerv, who jumped on the chance to contribute. From that point on things developed fast.
Even though Agnete and Gunnhild were located on opposite sides of the country, working on the song together came very naturally for the two of them who soon figured out how the material could be further developed and adapted to each of their unique vocals.
Being a female front vocalist for a metal/rock band is sadly still something of an exception in 2023 and both Gunnhild and Agnete have felt a sense of alienation and isolation, of standing out in the crowd – on Svarteboka they stand together.
Compared to Svarteboka, Skarvane is something quite different, but still unmistakably a Gåte track.
Here, Gåte has granted themselves even more freedom to experiment with genre and sound, and has made a song that challenges both the folk rock scene and Gåte’s audience.
As a band, Gåte has always represented a breaking point between the traditional and the modern, a meeting place between past and present. This also requires a curiosity and a willingness to push yourself to explore new soundscapes and play around with elements from other genres.
This is eagerness to explore and push boundaries is evident on Skarvane, where Gåte exhibits new sides of themselves, and daringly implement and toy around with new sonic elements.
As such, Skarvane is not only a sign of what Gåte can accomplish, but also an indication of what we might expect in the future.
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